I glanced at the mechas and discovered that my resonance could sense them very clearly. It was like I had another organ for sensing and I was really aware of them.

"This should be an interesting practice match." I thought to myself.

"Just pick one and get in. They are all the same type. There are no grade differences in practice mechas." Emma's voice sounded loudly through the mecha's voice amplifier.

I climbed into the nearest mecha and powered it up. It was black and looked extremely cool. "Perfect first mecha for the future Emperor." I thought.

The mecha immediately connected to my brainwaves and all at once, I felt like I could control the mecha with my thoughts.

"Ahh it feels good to be able to move both arms again!" I said aloud as I waved my arms around happily.

"I'll give you five minutes to familiarize yourself with the mecha." Emma said from her side of the room.

I quickly jumped around, lunged left and right and swung my practice metal quarterstaff this way and that way.

I must have shown much more dexterity and fluidity in my movements than I thought, because at the next moment, Emma asked me suspiciously.

"Hey! What's your RPL?"

"Hehehe. Let me show you instead of telling you." I grinned widely and beckoned her over.

"Hmph! Don't get too cocky. Your RPL may be high, but without skills, you'd still be my punching bag. Here I come!" Emma shouted.

Emma boomed her way towards me while holding her long quarterstaff in an underarm grip braced under her armpit like a lance.

I scoffed lightly. Such a grip would give her huge striking power, but very little in terms of flexibility and reduced her range drastically.

In one versus one, an inch longer is an inch stronger.

Not willing to lose out on momentum, I began to dash towards her as well. But my long quarterstaff was held horizontally out to my right in preparation for a wide slash.

I figured that a slash would be more effective than a lance charge. Once you miss a lance charge, you miss totally. But a wide slash would give me a larger area of attack which would make it more difficult to dodge.historical

I was so wrong.

Once we neared each other's striking distance, I began to swing my quarterstaff towards her and prepared to dodge her piercing attack.

However, Emma suddenly accelerated and closed the distance between us in an instant!

She wasn't running at top speed before!

In addition, she also changed her grip and stabbed her quarterstaff sharply towards my head!

"What a sneaky little girl!" I cried out bitterly in my heart as I jerked my head violently to the right to dodge her attack.

I wasn't fast enough.

BAM!

Her quarterstaff struck the side of my head and flung it backwards savagely as I failed to dodge her attack.

BAM!

My own slash smashed into her half a second later. But it was very much weakened by her attack which broke my momentum.

Emma had no problems parrying my wild slash with her armored arm.

BAM! BAM! BAM!

Emma unleashed a flurry of attacks to take advantage of the fact that I was slightly disoriented by her successful attack to my head.

I tried my best to block her attacks, but her quarterstaff stabs were extremely devious and managed to avoid my attempts to block them.

Two seconds later...

"DING! Round over. Black Mecha had received fatal damage. Red Mecha Victory." A disembodied voice announced.

"DAMN IT!!" I shouted in exasperation. "AGAIN!"

Emma gleefully obliged as we returned to our sides of the room.

"Ready!" I shouted and dashed towards Emma without waiting for her reply.

"I will win this time. I am ready for her tricks!" I declared to myself.

But I was not. She was totally right. My heightened senses and control were of no benefit to me in light of vastly greater skill!

I approached her with a double grip on my quarterstaff like an ancient samurai warrior.

"HA!" I shouted as I leapt up right before we entered each other's maximum range.

BAM!!

My head smashed into something incredibly solid and was flung backwards violently once more as Emma threw her quarterstaff like a javelin.

"AH!!" I screamed and fell down heavily.

BAM!

BAM! BAM! BAM!

"DING! Round over. Black Mecha had received fatal damage. Red Mecha Victory." A disembodied voice announced.

"AGAIN!"

"DING! Round over. Black Mecha had received fatal damage. Red Mecha Victory." A disembodied voice announced.

"ARGH! AGAIN!"

"DING! Round over. Black Mecha had received fatal damage. Red Mecha Victory." A disembodied voice announced.

"I don't believe I will lose to you five rounds in a row. AGAIN!"

"DING! Round over. Black Mecha had received fatal damage. Red Mecha Victory." A disembodied voice announced.

By the end of the fifth round, Emma was exhausted. She had just recovered from a serious bout of malnutrition and she was unable to fight for extended periods of time.

And so even though I desperately wanted to challenge her for more battles, I kept my mouth shut for her sake.

Of course, she had no idea that I was thinking for her and assumed that I had given up. And she made sure to "stomp" on me heavily while I was down as a form of revenge after losing 5000 academy credits to me.

"HA! Why aren't you challenging me to ano-ther fight?" Emma panted. "Are you - too scared? Scaredy cat! Chicken! Pok pok pok!! Kukuruyuuuu!! Pok pok pok!!!"

Even though she was so tired, she still gave all she had to insult me! She must be extremely bitter about her 5000 academy credit loss!

HAHA!

"Sigh. See, Justin. It is - never good to be so cocky. Humility - is a virtue. You have to be more like - me! Being humble is not simply the words - you say or the actions you do. It is the state of - your heart!" Emma panted and lectured me rather proudly herself.